Il Tirreno Giornale (PISA, Italia, Sunday 5 May 2002)
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A provactive hypothesis in a new book by Pacini Publishers that will be released in June A study by Antonino Caleca attributes it to Giovanni Pisano by Patrizia Di Giuseppe PISA. The observant passer-by who crosses the Piazza many times each day, may not ever miss noticing the physical presence of the tower, the ilumination. Some others find humor, some decline to acknowledge the subject. But the vision of the bell tower is not only through the path of the senses. And it often pushes toward more intellectual pleasures, that elicit the structural or stylistic or functional characteristics. This latter vision happens in "The Tower of Pisa, a Photographic and Historical Journey" by Antonino Caleca, edited by Pacini Publishing, that will be released officially at the beginning of June. The book covers all the qualities that the tower suggests: a competent and accurate historical-physical description by the studious Pisan, a more emotional one entrusted to the suggestive images by Aurelio Amendola, an anthological one, written by Lorenzo Carletti, a student of Caleca, that picks up historical documents and testimonies by famous characters visiting the Piazza dei Miracoli. By all appearances, it is another honorable edition on the tower. But there is a surprise. A clever one arrives, almost at the end of the section written by Caleca, who, after having summarized the principals of its construction and the relative opinions of art critics, stops and looks at the case of the last level of the bell tower, the eighth, and he recognizes a different paternity compared to that traditionally approved by the critics guided by the writings of Vasari. The hypothesis of the researcher, who agreed to answer any of our questions, puts an important name of medieval art in play: Giovanni Pisano. It will surely foster study and debate among art historians. When did he begin to think that the eighth order of the tower was the fruit of a different mind from the one stated by Vasari? I was a student of Ragghianti. He taught us that it was important to get on the tower to make us account for the relationship between the tower and the surrounding landscape. Up there it was easier to consider the quality of the last order that, in the continuity of the architectural lexicon apparent in all the buildings of the piazza, showed, among other qualities, a more vigorous use, in light and shading effects, of the decorative motifs. Has nobody noticed this different qualitative level before? There is so much to study in the buildings of the Piazza, I assure you, it has always been my impression that nobody, among the many visitors in the course of the centuries, had ever noticed the quality of the terminal part of the tower and noted it in their diaries of trip. Even the idea in the book, came to me well after having read an article by Argan, that defended the closing of the tower and affirmed that the correct fruition of the bell tower was that of the vision from the lower part. A problematic answer for me, since a climb on the bell tower, permitted now for a very interested public, allows, among other things, a more attentive consideration of those elements unavailable except at the height. What features make the eighth order attributable to Giovanni Pisano? Vasari has never fully convinced me that Tommaso Pisano was responsible. We know that he was more than anything a jeweler and not a direct employee of the Work (Opera della Primazionale) who, in fact, was not usually entrusted work of this nature. Besides this thesis would make us postpone the conclusion of the work of the tower by fifty years. After studying attentively all the documents maintained by the Opera, I think that I have been able to reasonably conclude that the tower had been completed in that period in which it was not well known of things dealing with Giovanni, whose capricious character (as reported in the chronicles) moved to Siena. Stylistically, precise elements exist that are repeated in the façade of the Siena cathedral or in other work that, by me, are attributable to Giovanni, like the cathedral of Maritime Mass. It could be objected that the ornamental wealth of the Siena cathedral does not lend itself to constitute a model of elevation with the rigorous theme of the last part of the bell tower. The elements of the elevation are there and are exposed in the pages of my work. The attribution of the façade of the cathedral of Maritime Mass to Giovanni (inferred by the studies of the detailed figures that support the columns of the façade), less complex than that of Siena, has allowed me to characterize a different formality of the stylistic expression of the artist, to elaborate solutions more or less complex as functions of the detail or of the alignment, as in the case of Piazza dei Miracoli, for expressive coherent solutions with a plan already existing. Any consideration on the images of Amendola? I had already worked with him as he is always concerned with art. The photography had been performed before they began the work of restructuring. We have tried to emphasize the inside of the tower also, because it is important that it is understood not as an object that is seen only from the outside, but also from inside. It is enough to think about the function of the observatory that was the function of the tower, before the unfortunate intervention of 1911 that inserted a cork of cement in the inside opening that focused on, aloft, a circle of sky. The anthological section, written by Carletti, is of pleasant reading. It delivers a survey among the tastes and the expectations of the visitors over the course of centuries. It is a part of the work that has greatly amused me. I think about some episodes, indeed savories, like that quoted from Belli, or other comments that have revealed how the tower is a central element in the vision that has been Italy in the course of the centuries. More than anything else the poetry of Wordsworth impresses me, that Carletti has translated constituting a kind of discovery, because it is not present in the published works of the English poet. The book, "La Torre di Pisa, Viaggio Fotografico e Storico" by Antonino Caleca, edited by Pacini Editore is available through the Internet Bookshop Italia |
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